Memnoir – Canto Vol. I (2010)

I recently received the new 6 song EP from Memnoir. When this CD came in the mail, I must admit I have never heard of the band, and had no knowledge of their sound what so ever. The front sticker said recommended if you like Stabbing Westward, Breaking Benjamin, NIN, Evanescence etc. That was good enough for me to check them out.

All of the songs music and lyrics were written by Memnoir (Just Memnoir) with the exception of “The One” ( which was penned by Kristy Bailey.

Memnoir used a ton of musicians to flesh out this project including the guitars of Jesse James, Ola Englund, Butch Price, Arto Toropainen and Keigo Yoshida, the bass of Evan Harris, the drums of Ross Morgan and Christian Nativo, and the piano of Toussaint Hunt. That seems like a heck of a lot of musicians to put together six songs. Usually when so many musicians partake in a musical project, it sounds a little disjointed. In the case of Canto Vol. I, it simply does not. The music is surprisingly solid, and much like the sticker on the front cover suggests, if you are a fan of any of the bands I mentioned above, you will probably like Canto Vol. I.

The music on this CD is dark, moody, sometimes heavy, but always interesting. If you are looking for some new tunes to explore, you could do a lot worse than Memnoir’s Canto Vol. I.

You can score a couple of the songs for free, by visiting the Memnoir website, and joining the mail list. Check them out!